A workshop for everyone, regardless of experience, knowledge or drawing ability! In this dynamic, hands-on workshop, we’ll start with a quick exploration of the wonderful world of autobiographical comics, then move into a series of writing and drawing exercises that will allow participants to create your very own short autobiographical comic.

Sarah Leavitt’s graphic memoir Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s My Mother and Me has been published in Canada, the US, UK, Germany and France to international critical acclaim (LA Times, Vanity Fair, Globe + Mail, Die Welt the Guardian). Her prose and comics have appeared in anthologies, magazines and newspapers in Canada, the US and the UK. She is currently working on a graphic novel set in mid-19th century BC.

Leavitt will be a featured author/artist at the Words on the Water Festival March 13 + 14, 2015.

As 2015 kicks off and we look forward to spring and the coming of the Words on the Water festival, we thought it a worthwhile moment to reflect on some notable 2014 milestones for two of our upcoming authors, Kathleen Winter and Steven Galloway. These end of the year reflections have our committee feeling excited for the literary delights to come one cold and foggy Friday evening in the not too distant future.

Kathleen Winter’s book Boundless: Tracing Land and Dream in a New Northwest Passage made Quill and Quire’s list of Top Book of the Year. As one of only fifteen books to appear on the list, the editor writes:

If there is one piece of advice I’ll take away from the books that crossed my desk this year, it’s from Kathleen Winters’ friend, who advised her to pack a getaway bag in case of unexpected travel opportunities. Thank god she did, because otherwise we might not have Boundless, Winter’s stunning memoir of journeying through the Northwest passage. Winter’s personal reflections on marriage, family, and past relationships, combined with her poetic observations of the Northern geography and people, breath new energy into the traditional travelogue format.

Also worth celebrating is the accomplishments of Steven Gallaway for his most recent work, The Confabulist. Galloway is also the author of Finnie Walsh, Ascension, and The Cellist of Sarajevo. The Confabulist saw Galloway as a top finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. The jury wrote:

“Shredding and reassembling history into a thrilling story that is part spy mystery and part historical intrigue, The Confabulistchallenges our notions of what is real and what is illusion. Like a well-executed stage show, this novel does the truly remarkable on every page, creating a sprawling story with taut, precise prose. Steven Galloway manages, like his central figure, Harry Houdini, to do the seemingly impossible right in front of our eyes over and over again — even when we’re watching for it — beguiling us and making it look easy.”

Undoubtably, the mystery that is the Words on the Water festival will evoke some prize-winning moments of its own. Be sure to purchase Early Bird tickets online through our website while still available.

"To Thomasina people were rivers, always ready to move from one state of being into another. It was not fair, she felt, to treat people as if they were finished beings. Everyone was always becoming and unbecoming.” - Kathleen Winter, Annabel

_Festival updates: The 2015 Words on the Water﻿﻿Writers' Festival is taking shape and the organizing committee is excited to announce this year's writers, as well as some changes to our website.

1) 2015 Authors Each year's festival is flavoured not just by the individual writers, but by the chemistry of the group as a whole. Earlier this week the festival committee finalised the eight authors who will be coming to Campbell River this spring. They are an inspiring blend of leading creative minds and we are pleased to introduce them to you here:

2) New website and online ticket salesThe festival website has been refreshed with a new look and additional features, which has enabled us to offer ticket sales onlinefor 2015. We hope this will be more convenient for festival goers, as well as make for smoother administration for our volunteers. Weekendand single session passesare available now and are already beginning to sell. They make excellent gifts for the literature lovers on your list!

Last week saw the launch of The Sea Among Us, an anthology of the Georgia Straight. From the publisher:

The Strait of Georgia is a one of the world’s great inland seas, a 6,900 sq km body of water lying between the British Columbia mainland and Vancouver Island. Rich in history, teeming with wildlife and marine traffic, it is essential to British Columbians for food, jobs, travel and recreation. The sheltered waters of the strait are home to Canada’s largest seaport and over two-thirds of the province’s population.The Sea Among Us is the first book to present a comprehensive study of the Strait of Georgia in all its aspects with chapters on geology, First Nations, history, oceanography, fish, birds, mammals,invertebrates and plants. Covering everything from tsunami modelling to First Nations history to barnacle reproduction, the book is a sweeping overview of the waterway. It describes how fjords formed, what the seafloor is made of, and why coastal BC is so prone to earthquakes; it advises on which jellyfish sting, how to tell the difference between Dall’s and harbour porpoises, and where to find whales; and it addresses how climate change and human impacts could affect the strait, noting that though marine ecosystems are tough and adaptable, there are limits to this resiliency.As editor Dr. Richard Beamish says, “It is the function of this book to inform British Columbians about the Strait of Georgia. All authors hope that the readers will use the information to ask questions about how the Strait of Georgia is coping with change and how they can provide more of the information that is needed to maintain a healthy Strait of Georgia.”Informative, descriptive, cautionary and entertaining, The Sea Among Us is illustrated with attractive colour photographs, figures and drawings. It fills a place on the shelf of essential BC reference books beside The Encyclopedia of British Columbia and Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest.

Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) is Monday, October 27, 2014. The purpose of the event is to promote the love of reading, to demonstrate it as a life-long habit, and, hopefully, a daily one.If you’d like to register your participation there’s a link on the BCTLA DEAR blog. Participation doesn’t have to be onerous—the act of setting time aside to read sets an example of its value, and if conversations arise out of that—even better!